International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT) ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-6 Issue-4, April 2017 Mechanical and Tribological Analysis of Polymer Matrix Composites

Ajit Kumar Senapati, Subham Choudhury, Snehansu Sekhar Mishra, Ravi Roushan, Subhashis Nanda, Amit Kumar Mohanta

Abstract: Polymer matrix composites are very popular in the Spacecraft and missile technology a combinations of applications of lightweight aircraft, marine and automobile specific properties are required of material which may only structures. Particularly, resin based reinforced composites be obtained from different materials, but not from a single are the prepared choice because of the superior physical, substance. For Example, aeronautics require lightness, low thermal, electrical and mechanical properties, ease of processing, density, high strength, stiffness and resistance to abrasion, excellent wettability with various reinforcements, less moisture pick up, low density, and ductile nature of the epoxy resin. In corrosion and impact which is neither available from accordance with that, the present work is aimed to study the aluminium, magnesium, or steel but a combined form and mechanical and tribological properties of pariculate filled fibre solve this problem. Technology needs development of a new reinforced glass Epoxy resin polymer matrix composite. At first class of material to take care of such increasing demands glass Epoxy resin polymer matrix composite was prepared by and such materials which are called ‘composite materials’. filling varying wt% of Fly Ash(240 mesh size) and Carbon consists of two or more materials in a Powder(240 mesh size) using hand lay up technique. While different phase. In traditional engineering impurities in preparation of the polymer matrix composite a brief study on the process of preparation and composition was studied. After that metal can be represented in different phase and by definition tests for mechanical and tribological properties was carried out. considered as a composite, but are not considered as a The mechanical property tests such as density and hardness was composite due to modulus of strength is nearly same as that investigated in accordance with ASTM standards. Tribological of pure metal. Oldest known composites were natural properties i.e. two body abrasive wear study was carried out using composites, wood consist of cellulose fiber in lignin a pin-on-disc wear tester. According to the observations the composites, human bone can be considered as a osteons concentration of filler material best suited for different purposes was determined. Finally we have compared the properties of Fly embedded in an interstitial bone matrix. Ash and Carbon Powder filled fibre reinforced glass Epoxy resin 1.2 Definitions of Composite polymer matrix composite with each other and other polymer matrix composites. It also highlights the current application and Composites are materials consisting of two or more future potential of particulate filled glass fiber reinforced chemically distinct constituents, on a macro-scale, having a polymer matrix composites in aerospace, automotive, marine and distinct interface separating them. One or more other construction industries. discontinuous phases are embedded in a continuous phase to Keywords: Polymer Matrix Composites (PMCs), Fly ash, form a composite. Composite mainly formed from two Carbon Powder, Abrasive wear, Micro Hardness, Density. distinguished material one of which is in the particle or fiber or in sheet form are combined with other material known as I. INTRODUCTION a matrix. Fiber in the composites acts as a principle load 1.1 Overview of Composites carrying member due to its high strength modules while matrix in the composites acts as a load transfer medium Metals, Ceramics and high polymers have their own between the fibers. Due to more ductility of the composite it characteristics in pure state. They are being used in various gives matrix high toughness. fields of operations. In case of complicated situations dealt 1.3 Types of Composites by modern technologies, e.g. gas turbines, supersonics, 1.3.1 On the basis of Matrix Material:

The first level of classification is usually made with respect to the matrix constituent. The major composite classes Revised Version Manuscript Received on April 24, 2017. include Organic Matrix Composites (OMCs), Metal Matrix Dr. Ajit Kumar Senapati, Professor & Head, Department of Composites (MMCs) and Ceramic Matrix Composites Mechanical Engineering, Gandhi Institute of Engineering and Technology, (CMCs). The term organic matrix composite is generally Gunupur (Odisha)-765022, India. Subham Choudhury, Student, Department of Mechanical assumed to include two classes of composites, namely Engineering, Gandhi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Gunupur Polymer Matrix Composites (PMCs) and carbon matrix (Odisha)-765022, India. composites commonly referred to as carbon-carbon Snehansu Sekhar Mishra, Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Gandhi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Gunupur composites. (Odisha)-765022, India. Composites material formed from two different materials, Ravi Roushan, Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, matrix and fibrous system. And on the basis of matrix used Gandhi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Gunupur (Odisha)- composites may be categories into three different categories. 765022, India. Subhashis Nanda, Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 1.3.1.1 Metal matrix composites Gandhi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Gunupur (Odisha)- 1.3.1.2 Ceramic matrix composites 765022, India. 1.3.1.3 Polymer matrix composite Amit Kumar Mohanta, Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Gandhi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Gunupur (Odisha)-765022, India.

Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering 193 & Sciences Publication Pvt. Ltd.

Mechanical and Tribological Analysis of Polymer Matrix Composites

1.3.1.1 Metal matrix composites: fibers can be unidirectional (all fibers parallel to each other) A Metal matrix composite (MMC) is composite material or woven into a fabric or cloth. Unidirectional fibers provide with at least two constituent parts, one being a metal for the highest mechanical properties in a composite. Glass necessarily, the other material may be a different metal or fiber reinforced plastics (GFRP) are by far the most another material, such as a ceramic or organic compound. commonly used materials in view of their high specific When at least three materials are present, it is called a mechanical properties and low cost. Carbon fiber reinforced hybrid composite. Most metals and alloys make good plastics (CFRP) and aramid fiber reinforced plastics (AFRP) matrices. However, practically, the choices for low provide higher specific strength, higher specific stiffness temperature applications are not many. Only light metals are and lighter weight. They are, however, expensive and are responsive, with their low density proving an advantage. used only for those applications where performance and not Titanium, Aluminium and magnesium are the popular cost is the major consideration. AFRP is used instead of matrix metals currently in vogue, which are particularly CFRP where strength, lightness and toughness are major useful for aircraft applications. If metallic matrix materials considerations, and stiffness and high temperature have to offer high strength, they require high modulus performance are not. It cannot be used in high temperature reinforcements. The strength-to-weight ratios of resulting application due to its high CTE. It is further divided into composites can be higher than most alloys. Metal matrix two types. composites, at present, are not as widely in use as their i. matrix composites. plastic counterparts. High strength, fracture toughness and ii. Thermoplastic polymer matrix composites. stiffness are offered by metal matrices than those offered by i. Thermosetting polymer matrix composites: Usually their polymer counterparts. They can withstand elevated thermostats are the material usually liquid or malleable prior temperature in corrosive environment than polymer to curing and designed to mold into their final form. Once it composites. Most metals and alloys could be used as gets its final form it will not melt due to its well-developed matrices and they require reinforcement materials which 3D bonded structure. Generally used thermosetting need to be stable over a range of temperature and non- polymers are epoxy and cyanate ester. Thermosetting reactive too. However the guiding aspect for the choice polymer matrix composites have qualities such as a well- depends essentially on the matrix material. Light metals bonded three-dimensional molecular structure after curing. form the matrix for temperature application and the They decompose instead of melting on hardening. reinforcements in addition to the aforementioned reasons are Thermoset polymers remain rigid when heated and consist characterized by high moduli. Due to above mentioned of a highly cross-linked three dimensional network; they are reason it is used in the combustion chamber nozzle (in the quite strong and stiff and have poor ductility. rocket, space shuttle), housings, tubing, cables, heat Epoxy (Epoxide): exchangers, structural members etc. Epoxy is used widely in numerous formulations and forms in the aircraft-aerospace industry. It is called "the work 1.3.1.2 Ceramic matrix composites: horse of modern day composites". Standard (90%) Ceramics can be described as solid materials which exhibit are based on bisphenol A diglycidyl ether formula.In recent very strong ionic bonding in general and in few cases years, the epoxy formulations used in composite prepregs covalent bonding. Ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) are a have been finetuned to improve their toughness, impact subgroup of composite materials as well as a subgroup of strength and moisture absorption resistance. Maximum technical ceramics. They consist of ceramic fibres properties have been realized for this polymer. embedded in a ceramic matrix, thus forming a ceramic fibre This is not only used in aircraft-aerospace demand. It is used reinforced ceramic material. The matrix and fibres can in military and commercial applications and is also used in consist of any ceramic material, whereby carbon and carbon construction. Epoxy-reinforced concrete and glass- fibres can also be considered a ceramic material. reinforced and carbon-reinforced epoxy structures are used 1.3.1.3 Polymer matrix composites: in building and bridge structures. When different types of polymeric material use as a matrix ii. Thermoplastics polymer matrix composites: material to make composite it is known as the polymer Thermoplastics have one- or two-dimensional molecular matrix composites. Polymers are the macromolecule formed structure and they tend to at an elevated temperature and by the linking together of a large number of smaller units show exaggerated melting point. Another advantage is that know as monomers. It shows high tensile strength, high the process of softening at elevated temperatures can stiffness, fracture toughness, good abrasion resistance, reversed to regain its properties during cooling, facilitating puncher resistant, corrosion resistant and low cost. It shows applications of conventional compress techniques to mould low thermal resistance and has high co-efficient of thermal the compounds. Thermoplastic polymers consists of flexible expansion. It is used in the field of automobile where we linear molecular chains that are tangled together and, as the need damping and good shock absorbing function. The most name indicates, soften when heated; they have lower common types of reinforcement used for PMC are strong strength and modulus but quite high ductility. The and brittle fibers incorporated into a soft and ductile advantage of thermoplastics systems over thermosets are polymeric matrix. In this case, PMC are referred to as fiber that there are no chemical reactions involved, which often reinforced plastics (FRP). Capital letters G, C and A are result in release of gases or heat. Manufacturing is limited placed before the acronym FRP to specify the nature of the by the time required for heating, shaping and cooling the reinforcing fibers: glass, carbon or aramid fibers. The fibers structures. However, can be long (continuous) or short (discontinuous). Long

Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering 194 & Sciences Publication Pvt. Ltd. International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT) ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-6 Issue-4, April 2017

their redeeming qualities like rigidity, toughness and ability Reinforcements for the composites can be fibers, fabrics to repudiate creep, place thermoplastics in the important particles or whiskers. Fibers are essentially characterized by composite materials bracket. They are used in automotive one very long axis with other two axes either often circular control panels, electronic products encasement etc. or near circular. Particles have no preferred orientation and 1.3.2 On the basis of Reinforcement: so does their shape. Whiskers have a preferred shape but are The second level of classification refers to the small both in diameter and length as compared to fibers. reinforcement form - fibre reinforced composites, laminar Figure shows types of reinforcements in composites. composites and particulate composites. Fibre Reinforced Reinforcing constituents in composites, as the word composites (FRP) can be further divided into those indicates, provide the strength that makes the composite containing discontinuous or continuous fibres. what it is. But they also serve certain additional purposes of heat resistance or conduction, resistance to corrosion and provide rigidity. Reinforcement can be made to perform all or one of these functions as per the requirements. A reinforcement that embellishes the matrix strength must be stronger and stiffer than the matrix and capable of changing failure mechanism to the advantage of the composite. This means that the ductility should be minimal or even nil the composite must behave as brittle as possible. 1.4 Glass Fiber: Glass fiber is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass. Glass fiber has roughly comparable mechanical properties to other fibers such as polymers and carbon fiber. Although not as strong or as rigid as carbon Figure 1: Classification of Composites fiber, it is much cheaper and significantly less brittle when used in composites. Glass fibers are therefore used as a Reinforcements: A strong, inert woven and nonwoven reinforcing agent for many polymer products; to form a very fibrous material incorporated into the matrix to improve its strong and relatively lightweight fiber-reinforced polymer metal glass and physical properties. Typical reinforcements (FRP) composite material called glass-reinforced plastic are asbestos, boron, carbon, metal glass and ceramic fibers, (GRP), also popularly known as "fiberglass". This structural flock, graphite, jute, sisal and whiskers, as well as chopped material product contains little or no air or gas, is more paper, macerated fabrics, and synthetic fibers. The primary dense, and is a much poorer thermal insulator than is difference between reinforcement and filler is the glasswool. reinforcement markedly improves tensile and flexural Properties Of Glass Fiber : strength, whereas filler usually does not. Also to be 1. Thermal effective, reinforcement must form a strong adhesive bond Glass fibers are useful thermal insulators because of their with the resin. high ratio of surface area to weight. However, the increased The role of the reinforcement in a composite material is surface area makes them much more susceptible to chemical fundamentally one of increasing the mechanical properties attack. By trapping air within them, blocks of glass fiber of the neat resin system. All of the different fibers used in make good thermal insulation, with a thermal conductivity composites have different properties and so affect the of the order of 0.05 W/(m·K). properties of the composite in different ways .However, 2. Tensile individual fibers or fiber bundles can only be used on their Table 1: Properties of Glass Fiber own in a few processes such as filament winding. For most other applications, the fibers need to be arranged into some Thermal Tensile Compressiv Densit expansio form of sheet, known as a fabric, to make handling possible. Fiber strengt Softenin e strength y n Different ways for assembling fibers into sheets and the type h g T (°C) (MPa) (g/cm3) (µm/m·° (MPa) variety of fiber orientations possible lead to there being C) many different types of fabrics, each of which has its own E- characteristics. 3445 1080 2.58 5.4 846 i. Fly Ash as reinforcement: glass Fly ash is an industrial waste, which is a byproduct of coal S-2 4890 1600 2.46 2.9 1056 combustion collected from electrostatic precipitators and glass bottom ash at the bottom of furnaces. It is a finegrained, powder material and comprises the fine particles that rise The strength of glass is usually tested and reported for with the flue gases and usually collected by means of "virgin" or pristine fibers—those that have just been electrostatic precipitators, bag housings, or mechanical manufactured. The freshest, thinnest fibers are the strongest collection devices such as cyclones. Fly ash obtained from because the thinner fibers are more ductile. The more the electrostatic precipitators varies in size from 5µm to 75 µm. surface is scratched, the less the resulting tenacity. Because A typical composition of fly ash is as shown in the table glass has an amorphous structure, below.

Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering 195 & Sciences Publication Pvt. Ltd.

Mechanical and Tribological Analysis of Polymer Matrix Composites

Its properties are the same along the fiber and across the reinforced plastics, especially if they can be shown fiber. Humidity is an important factor in the tensile strength. to improve on the safety of steel structures, for fire Moisture is easily adsorbed and can worsen microscopic protection piping circuits, walkways, flooring, cracks and surface defects, and lessen tenacity.In contrast ladders, tanks and storage vessels, blast panels, to carbon fiber, glass can undergo more elongation before it breaks. There is a correlation between bending diameter of II. LITERATURE REVIEW the filament and the filament diameter. The viscosity of the 2.1 Literature Survey molten glass is very important for manufacturing success. This literature review provides background information on During drawing (pulling of the glass to reduce fiber the issues to be considered in this project and emphasizes circumference), the viscosity must be relatively low. If it is the relevance of the present study. This treatise embraces too high, the fiber will break during drawing. However, if it some related aspects of polymer composites with special is too low, the glass will form droplets rather than drawing reference to their mechanical and tribological properties. out into fiber.  Epoxy resin has been significantly important to the 1.5 Advantages of PMC over MMC engineering community for many years. Components  High specific strength made of epoxy-based materials have been providing  Better Tribological properties outstanding mechanical, thermal, and electrical  Lower specific gravity properties.Using an additional phase (e.g.inorganic  Low electrical and thermal conductivity. fillers) to strengthen the properties of epoxy resins has  Better suitability over ageing and weathering. become common practice (Zheng et al 2003). It has  Flexible in design been established in the recent years that polymer-based  Wide varieties of availability composites reinforced with a small percentage of strong 1.6 Effect of Addition of Filler Materials fillers can significantly improve the mechanical, Filler materials we are using are Fly Ash & Carbon Powder. thermal, and barrier properties of the pure polymer Following are the effects of addition of fillers matrix.  Fillers improve the wear resistance of the  Dr. K.A. Rameshkumar conducted a study on composites. investigation of Mechanical Properties on Epoxy, Fly  Fillers reduce the shrinkage of polymer matrix Ash and E -Glass Fiber Reinforcement Composite composite. Material and reported that that addition of fly ash  Fillers reduces the cost of composite by reducing significantly improves ultimate tensile strength the quantity of costlier resin and reinforcement along with compressive strengthened hardness fibers. properties.  Fillers enhance the mechanical properties of the  B. Suresha, G. Chandramohan, J. N. Prakash, V. composites by transferring stresses and by Balusamy and K. Sankaranarayanasamy(2006) improving the bonding between the reinforcement investigated the role of Fillers on Friction and Slide and matrix. Wear Characteristics in Glass-Epoxy Composite  Fillers influence the fire resistance of composites. Systems and reported that Inclusion of Graphite and 1.7 Future Scope of PMCs SiC particulate fillers contributed significantly in  Many modern light aircraft are being increasingly reducing friction and exhibited better wear resistant designed to contain as much lightweight composite properties. Silicon carbide filled G-E composite shows material as possible.Concord's disk brakes use this higher resistance to slide wear compared to plain G-E material, rocket nozzles and re-entry shields have composites. Graphite filled G-E composite shows lower been fashioned from it, and there are other coefficient of friction compared to the other two possibilities for its use as static components in jet samples. engines. A particularly interesting (and important)  Mohan et al (2011) investigated the effects of silicon application of composites is in its development in carbide fillers on two-body abrasive wear behavior of Australia as a means of repairing battle damage glass fabric-epoxy (G-E) composites.They reported that (patching) in metal aircraft structures. Space increase of abrading distance increases the weal loss applications offer many opportunities for linearly. The addition of SiC particles with the G-E employing light-weight, high-rigidity structures for composites increases wear resistance. This is due to the structural purposes. incorporation of SiC particles, led to less matrix and  Marine applications include surface vessels, less fiber damage during the abrasion. offshore structures and underwater applications. A  K. Devendra and T. Rangaswamy(2012) studied vast range of pleasure craft has long been produced Mechanical behaviour of E-Glass Fiber reinforced in GRP, but much serious use is also made of the Epoxy composite filled with varying concentration of same materials for hull and superstructure AL2O3, Mg(OH)2 and SiC. They reported that construction of passenger transport vessels, fishing composites filled by (10% vol.).Mg(OH)2 exhibited boats and military (mine-countermeasures) vessels. maximum ultimate tensile strength and SiC filled Sea-water cooling circuits may also be made of composite exhibited maximum impact strength, flexural GRP as well as hulls and other structures. Off- strength and Hardness. shore structures such as oil rigs also make use of

Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering 196 & Sciences Publication Pvt. Ltd. International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT) ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-6 Issue-4, April 2017

 Suresha et al (2007) investigated the role of SiC fillers  Weikang Li, Anthony Dichiara, Junwei Zha, in glassepoxy (G-E) composites on mechanical and dry Zhongqing Su, Jinbo Bai (2014) conducted a study on sliding wear behavior. They reported that the improvement of mechanical and thermo-mechanical mechanical properties such as tensile strength, tensile properties of glass fabric/epoxy composites by modulus, and elongation at break, flexural strength, and incorporating CNT–Al2O3 hybrids and found the hardness improved due to the inclusion of SiC filler. potential of CNT–Al2O3 hybrids as structural Also, the dry slide wear test results of SiC-G-E reinforcements in fibrous composites. composite showed a lower slide wear loss irrespective  Md Nadeem M, K Chandrashekaran,Yathisha N , of the load/sliding velocity when compared to G-E Rudramurthy(2014) conducted a study on the effects composite. of Carbon and glass fibre reinforcement and other  The use of graphite as a filler material was known to fillers on elevated temperature resistant properties of improve the mechanical and tribological properties of ER matrix composites and reported that Tensile polymer matrix composites.The mechanical and strength, Hardness and impact energy were improved tribological properties of the particulate-filled bi- with increase in fillers content. Wear resistance also directional carbon/glass fabric-reinforced epoxy improved with increase in percentage of fillers composite material were evaluated by Suresha et al substantially. [2006, 2007 and 2009].They concluded that the  Aditi Kaul Shah & Sandeep K. Sodhi (2015) studied incorporation of particulate fillers improved the about Effect of epoxy modifiers on the Tensile mechanical and tribological properties of polymer Strength of epoxy/glass fibre hybrid composites and composites. found that the mechanical behaviour of Hybrid GFRP  Biswas and Satapathy (2010) conducted the composites is improved by the addition of filler tribological and mechanical investigation on alumina abrasive particles. filled glass-epoxy composites. The results revealed that  Iskender Ozsoy,Askin Demirkol, Abdullah alumina filled glass-epoxy composite exhibited lower Mimaroglu, Huseyin Unal, Zafer Demir(2015) mechanical properties even though it showed a superior investigated the Influence of Micro- and Nano-Filler wear performance when compared to other materials. Content on the Mechanical Properties of Epoxy  Basavarajappa et al (2010) investigated the effect of Composites and reported that tensile strength, flexural SiC filler material on three-body abrasive wear strength and elongation at the break values of behavior of glass-epoxy composites under the composites decreased while the tensile modulus and parameters of abrading distance, applied load and flexural modulus increased with the increasing micro- sliding speed.They reported that the weight loss and nano-filler content ratio. increases with an increase in load, sliding speed and  Vijay D. Karande, Prof. P.R.Kale(2015) investigated abrading distance; even though SiC filled glass-epoxy the effect of Fly Ash as Filler on Glass Fiber composite exhibit a significant wear resistance by the Reinforced Epoxy Composites and reported that by loading of SiC when compared to the unfilled glass- increasing the percentage of filler content the tensile epoxy composites. strength is decreases. It Is concluded that pure  Sudarshan Rao K , Y.S Varadarajan and N composite material showed significant strength when Rajendra(2011) investigated the abrasive wear compare to filler content of 10%, 30%and 40%. behaviour of graphite filled carbon fabric  Prasad Galande, S. E. Zarekar(2016) investigated reinforcement epoxy composite and reported that the effect of Various Fillers on Mechanical Properties abrasive wear of the composites depend on the applied of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites and load, as well as on the weight fraction of fillers. Among Stiffness, friction coefficient and antiwear abilities of the control parameters, normal load has the highest GFRP composites were improved with single physical properties as well as statistical influence on the incorporation of ceramic whisker while the strength abrasive wear of the composites, followed by sliding properties were slightly reduced after whisker addition. distance and filler content. But after the addition of solid lubricant as secondary  Sujesh and Ganesan (2012) investigated the tensile filler it improved both mechanical and tribological behavior of bidirectional woven Glass Fiber Reinforced properties of composites Epoxy Polymer (GFRP) composites filled with nano  Mr.Chavan V.B. , Prof. Gaikwad M.U. conducted a silica. He reported that reinforcement of nano silica study on review on development of Glass Fiber/Epoxy with the composite increases the stiffness with damage Composite Material and its Characterizations and free range. Thus the silica compensates for the weak reported that Ultimate tensile strength and flexural mechanical properties of GFRP composite, even though strength of the fiber glass polyester composite increased the tensile result showed a slight decrement in ultimate with increase in the fiber glass Volume fraction of fiber tensile strength and tensile modulus of the composites. weight fractions. The Young’s modulus of elasticity  R.Satheesh Raja, K.Manisekar, of the composite increased with the fiber glass V.Manikandan(2013) conducted a study on Effect of Volume fraction. fly ash filler size on mechanical properties of polymer matrix composites and found that the size reduction of fly ash particle enhances the strength of PMC.

Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering 197 & Sciences Publication Pvt. Ltd.

Mechanical and Tribological Analysis of Polymer Matrix Composites

 T RAM PRABHU, S BASAVARAJAPPA,R B Requirement for this method is also minimal. The SANTHOSH and S M ASHWINI(2016) conducted a processing steps are quite simple. First of all, a release study on tribological and mechanical behaviour of dual- gel(vacuum grease, wax) is sprayed on the mould surface to particle (nanoclay and CaSiO3)-reinforced E-glass- avoid the sticking of polymer to the surface. Thin plastic reinforced epoxy nano-composites and found that the sheets are used at the top and bottom of the mould plate to wear loss increases. get good surface finish of the product. Reinforcement in the With increasing nanoclay amount due to the particle form of woven mats or chopped strand mats are cut as per agglomeration effects. Tensile and flexural test results the mould size and placed at the surface of mould. Then showed that a good dispersion of nanoclay is achieved thermosetting polymer in liquid form is mixed thoroughly in with 2 wt% amount in epoxy-based nanocomposites. suitable proportion with a prescribed hardener (curing  Halil Burak, Kaybal1, Hasan Ulus1, Ahmet Avcı agent) and poured onto the surface of mat already placed in (2016) studied about Characterization of Tensile the mould. The polymer is uniformly spread with the help of Properties And Toughness Mechanisms on Nano- brush. Second layer of mat is then placed on the polymer Al2O3 Epoxy Nano-composites and concluded that surface and a roller is moved with a mild pressure on the using nano-Al2O3 particle would be a new approach to mat-polymer layer to remove any air trapped as well as the increase tensile properties due to strong matrix-fiber excess polymer present. The process is repeated for each interface adhesion of carbon fiber reinforced nano- layer of polymer and mat, till the required layers are Al2O3 epoxy. stacked. After placing the plastic sheet, release gel is 2.2 Objectives of the present research work sprayed on the inner surface of the top mould plate which is The knowledge gap in the existing literature review has then kept on the stacked layers and the pressure is applied. helped to set the objectives of this research work which are After curing either at room temperature or at some specific outlined as follows: temperature, mould is opened and the developed composite  Fabrication of fly Ash and Carbon Powder part is taken out and further processed. The time of curing reinforced glass fiber epoxy resin composites. depends on type of polymer used for composite processing.  Evaluation of mechanical properties such as density For example, for epoxy based system, normal curing time at and hardness of composites. room temperature is 24-48 hours. This method is mainly  To study the tribological behaviour of particle suitable for thermosetting polymer based composites. reinforced glass epoxy resin polymer matrix Capital and infrastructural requirement is less as compared composites. to other methods. Production rate is less and high volume fraction of reinforcement is difficult to achieve in the III. EXPERIMENTAL WORK processed composites. Generally, the materials used to develop composites through hand lay-up method are given 3.1. RAW MATERIALS: in table. The raw materials we have taken for conducting the tests are: Materials Used PMC = Glass Epoxy Resin Polymer Matrix Composite Epoxy, polyester, polyvinyl ester, Epoxy Resin = AW4858 Matrix phenolic resin, unsaturated Hardener = HW 4858 polyester, resin Reinforcement = E-Glass Fiber Glass fiber, carbon fiber, aramid Filler Materials = 1. Fly Ash (240 mesh Size) fiber, natural plant fibers (sisal, banana, nettle, hemp, flax etc.) (all 2. Activated carbon powder(240 mesh size) these fibers are in the form of Reinforcement 3. Carbon powder + Fly Ash(240 mesh size) unidirectional mat, bidirectional We have used E-glass fiber as reinforcement and by (woven) mat, stitched into a fabric varying % concentration of different filler materials we form, mat of randomly oriented have prepared samples for carrying out tests. fibers) 3.3 Fabrication Procedure:

All laminates used in this study were manufactured by hand lay up technique. At first, mould was prepared in accordance with the required sample size. Now, a release gel(vacuum grease, wax) is sprayed on the mould surface to avoid the sticking of polymer to the surface. E-glass plain weave roving fabric, which is compatible to epoxy resin, is used as the reinforcement. The epoxy resin(AW 4858) is Figure 2 : Raw Samples of Epoxy Resin with Filler mixed with the hardener(HW 4858) in the ratio 5:1 by Materials weight. Reinforcement in the form of woven mats or 3.2. Fabrication technique: chopped strand mats are cut as per the mould size and In our experiment we have used Hand Lay-up method for placed at the surface of mould. Then epoxy resin having the preparation of polymer matrix composite. mixed with hardener (curing agent) is poured onto the 3.2.1: Hand Lay-Up Method surface of mat (glass fiber) already placed in the mould. Hand lay-up technique is the simplest method of composite processing. The infrastructural

Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering 198 & Sciences Publication Pvt. Ltd. International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT) ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-6 Issue-4, April 2017

The polymer is uniformly spread with the help of brush. C) Finding the volume of specimen by displacement Second layer of glass fiber is then placed on the polymer method: This method is generally being used to measure surface and a roller is moved with a mild pressure on the the volume of irregular shaped object whose volume cannot mat-polymer layer to remove any air trapped as well as the be measured by direct measurement using vernier calipers. excess polymer present. The process is repeated for each The displacement vessel was being prepared. The beaker of layer of polymer and mat, till the required layers are water was being placed on the pan of weighing machine. It stacked. To prepare the filled G-E composites, fillers (Fly was ensured that there was enough water in the beaker to Ash and activated carbon powder) is mixed with a known cover the object to be measured and also ensured it wasn’t amount of epoxy resin and glass fiber in varying % overfilled which lead to the spillage of water and ultimately concentration. After placing the plastic sheet, release gel is ruin the measurement. The end of the object was tied to a sprayed on the inner surface of the top mould plate which is light string such that it was fully submerged and the new then kept on the stacked layers and the pressure is applied. water level in the beaker was recorded. The apparent change After curing at room temperature for 36 hours, mould is in volume was found out and the increase was multiplied opened and the developed composite part is taken out. Now with the surface area of the water in order to obtain the the ready specimen is cut into required sample size volume added into the beaker by the introduction of the 40x8x8mm. Atlast, using sand paper the samples were objects. This added volume is the volume of the object. polished to give it exact dimension. D) Calculating the density: The volume using both the 3.4 Mechanical Property Observation: methods were obtained and by dividing mass with that of 3.4.1 Hardness Test: the volume the density was being obtained. Hardness test was carried out using Brinnell cum Rockwell Density= Mass/Volume. hardness tester. The samples were prepared and polished to provide a scratch free test surface. Steel ball indenter of 5mm diameter tip was used for Brinnell Hardness Test.

Figure 4: Vernier Calliper Showing the reading

3.6 Tribological Property Observation: Wear Test This test method describes a laboratory procedure for determining the wear of materials during sliding using a

pin-on-disk apparatus. Materials are tested in pairs under nominaly non-abrasive conditions. For the pin-on-disk wear test, two specimens are required. One, a pin with a radiused Figure 3: Brinell cum Rockwell hardness tester tip, is positioned perpendicular to the other, usually a flat 3.5 Physical Property Observation: circular disk. A ball, rigidly held, is often used as the pin Density is one of the basic properties of matter. Density is specimen. The test machine causes either the disk specimen defined as the mass of an object divided by the volume of or the pin specimen to revolve about the disk centre. In the same object. This yields a density of mass per unit either case, the sliding path is a circle on the disk surface. volume. If two objects have same volume, but different The pin specimen is pressed against the disk at a specified densities, the object with the higher density will weigh more load usually by means of an arm or lever and attached than identical looking object of lower density. Density of weights. Linear measures of wear are converted to wear materials can be measured in a no .of ways but in this volume (in cubic millimetres) by using appropriate experiment we used two different methods namely direct geometric relations. If loss of mass is measured, the mass measurement of volume using vernier callipers and loss value is converted to volume loss (in cubic millimetres) Archimedes principle to determine the volume to determine using an appropriate value for the specimen density. Wear the density of the materials and then the results were results are usually obtained by conducting a test for a compared to get the deviation. selected sliding distance and for selected values of load and speed. In the present experiment we are using the sample 3.5.1 Density Test: size of 40x8x8mm and above mentioned steps are carried A) Weighing the object: An electronic weighing machine out to get the desired result. which is in accordance with ASTM standard was being used to measure the weight of the sample. While weighing the object it was taken care that the specimen was completely dry in order to avoid any error in measurement. B) Determining the volume of the regular shaped specimen by measurement: Measurement of the length and the diameter of the cylindrical shaped object were being done using vernier callipers and using the standard Figure 5 : A pin-on-disc type machine mathematical formulae’s the results were obtained. Volume of Cuboid = Length x Breadth x Height

Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering 199 & Sciences Publication Pvt. Ltd.

Mechanical and Tribological Analysis of Polymer Matrix Composites

IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION Major Load During the Test: 250 Kgf, Minor Load During the Test: 10 Kgf In this chapter, different test like Wear Test, Micro hardness

Reinforce (F) FillerMaterials %age of Reinforce (R) of %age (F) Materials of %age test, density test were carried out on the newly developed S. Matrix No. (M) (M)

Polymer matrix composites (PMC’s). from the glass Epoxy

Resin and reinforced particles like Fly ash and Activated

Filler

Matrix Carbon Powder. The results thus obtained from the above (R) ment mention test were reported, analysed and discussed later in

ment this chapter.

Table 2: Composition of Samples Prepared Resin Epoxy GlassFiber

NA 40 % 60% NA Al2 Fe2 Mg K2

Compound SiO2 CaO Na2O

1 O3 O3 O O

63.3 0.6 (Wt. %) 24.6 4.97 1.23 0.56 0.11 4 4

Resin Epoxy GlassFiber

M) (240 FlyAsh 40 % 11.84%

4.1 Reinforced Particles Analysis: 2 48.16%

4.1.1 Fly Ash Analysis:

Table 4: Chemical composition of Fly Ash

We have taken the above reinforced particle (Fly Ash) from Resin Epoxy GlassFiber M) (240

FlyAsh the industry which present near to our college. The major 40 % 24.52% components of fly ash as received from the sources and used 3 35.48%

for reinforcement are listed in Table-4.1 in wt%. The Fly Ash contain mainly of two components SiO2 (63.34 wt%)

Resin Epoxy GlassFiber and AL2O3 (24.60 wt%). M) (240

FlyAsh 4.2 Mechanical Properties Determination:

40 % 39.7% Various Mechanical properties such as Hardness, Density

and Wear Test has been analysed and the results are as 4 20.3%

discussed in the following contexts: 4.2.1 Micro Hardness Test: Resin Epoxy M) (240 Powder Glass Carbon ) M + (240 Ash Fly 22.22 % Micro hardness testing is a method of determining a Flyash +

Fiber 40 % 22.22% material’s hardness or resistance to penetration when test 5 15.56% Carbon

samples are very small or thin, or when small regions in a composite sample or plating are to be measured. Brinnell cum Rockwell Hardness tester was used for determining the hardness of the material was done. The samples were prepared and polished to provide a scratch free test surface. Steel ball indenter of 5 mm Diameter tip was used for Brinnell Hardness Test.The experiment was conducted and the observation was recorded and studied.

Figure 7: Graphical Representation of Micro Hardness of Glass Epoxy Resin, Fly Ash and Activated Carbon Figure 6: Brinnell cum Rockwell Hardness tester Table 3: Micro Hardness of Glass Epoxy Resin ,Fly Ash and Activated Carbon

Sample Micro Hardness Measurements Mean Number ( in Kgf ) Trail - 01 Trail - 02 Trail - 03 1 57.5 55.5 56 56.33 2 69.5 74.5 65 69.66

3 71.5 73 78.5 74.33 Figure 8: Figure 9: 4 61 55 59.5 58.5 Sample Before Test Sample After Test

5 83.5 89 87 86.5

Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering 200 & Sciences Publication Pvt. Ltd. International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT) ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-6 Issue-4, April 2017

4.3 Physical Properties Determination: weighing machine. This test method describes a laboratory Physical properties like density has been analysed and the procedure for determining the wear of materials during results are as discussed in the following contexts: sliding using a pin-on-disk apparatus. Materials are tested in 4.3.1 Density: pairs under nominaly non-abrasive conditions. For the pin- Density is the mass of an object divided by its volume. on-disk wear test, two specimens are required. One, a pin There are no. of ways to calculate density of a material but with a radiused tip, is positioned perpendicular to the other, here we used two method to determine the density of the usually a flat circular disk. A ball, rigidly held, is often used specimen, they are direct measurement of volume using as the pin specimen. The test machine causes either the disk vernier calliper and measurement of volume using specimen or the pin specimen to revolve about the disk Archimedes’ principle. The deviation in the result from both centre. In either case, the sliding path is a circle on the disk the methods were compared to get the accurate value. surface. The pin specimen is pressed against the disk at a specified load usually by means of an arm or lever and attached weights. Linear measures of wear are converted to wear volume (in cubic millimetres) by using appropriate

geometric relations. If loss of mass is measured, the mass loss value is converted to volume loss (in cubic millimetres) using an appropriate value for the specimen density. Wear results are usually obtained by conducting a test for a selected sliding distance and for selected values of load and speed. In the present experiment we are using the sample size of 40x8x8mm and above mentioned steps are carried out to get the desired result. Coefficient of friction and wear Figure 10: Vernier Calliper Figure 11: Weighing are measured continuously with an electric sensor attached Machine to the machine and are recorded. The worn out samples are cleaned and are weighed in the balance. Table 4: Density of Glass Epoxy Resin, Fly Ash and

Activated carbon Sample Mass Volume Density Number (gm) (cm3) (gm/cm3)

1 3.007 2.03 1.48 2 3.462 2.43 1.42

3 3.396 2.49 1.36 4 3.142 2.38 1.32 5 2.814 2.039 1.38

Figure 13 : Wear Test Figure 14: Wear Test Sample Machine

Figure 12: Graphical Representation of Density of Glass Epoxy Resin, Fly Ash and Activated carbon

4.4 Tribological Property Observation 4.4.1 WEAR TEST Wear tests are carried out on a pin-on-disc type machine

(TR201LE) under atmospheric condition. The test samples having the dimensions of 8 mm diameter and 40 m length Figure 15: Graphical Representation of Weight Loss in are slide against the low alloy steel disc (material EN-31- Wear Test HRS 60 W 61 equal to 4340) of dia 215 mm, and Hardness R¬c 62. Weight loss is measured with electric sensor

Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering 201 & Sciences Publication Pvt. Ltd.

Mechanical and Tribological Analysis of Polymer Matrix Composites

Table 5: Reading of Wear Test conducted with Samples

Sliding Sliding Load Weight loss (WL in mg) Time Speed

Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample 4 Sample 5 Sample S. No. (S in (T in Sec) (L in N) m/sec)

1 1000 1 10 0.228 0.178 0.169 0.173 0.157

2 1000 1 10 0.216 0.172 0.171 0.176 0.159

3 1000 1 10 0.221 0.181 0.168 0.174 0.162

Average 0.221 0.177 0.169 0.174 0.159

2. Dr. K.A. Rameshkumar. Investigation of Mechanical Properties on V. CONCLUSION Epoxy, Fly Ash and E -Glass Fiber Reinforcement Composite Material The hand lay-up method used for the preparation of polymer 3. B. Suresha, G. Chandramohan, J. N. Prakash, V. Balusamy and K. matrix composites is easy, efficient and most economical Sankaranarayanasamy .2006. The role of Fillers on Friction and Slide method. It also helps in the uniform distribution of Fly ash Wear Characteristics in Glass-Epoxy Composite Systems. 4. Suresha, Kishore A, P. Sampathkumaran P. Seetharamu .2007. The and activated carbon powder particles in the matrix phase. role of SiC fillers in glassepoxy (G-E) composites on mechanical and After carrying out experiment we concluded that the dry sliding wear behavior. hardness value increases with an increase in %concentration 5. Biswas, Satapathy.2010.Tribological and mechanical investigation on alumina filled glass-epoxy composites. of Fly ash but after a definite %concentration hardness 6. Basavarajappa , C.M. Manjunatha, Ramesh Bojja, N. Jagannathan value decreases. The observed increase in hardness might be .2010. Effect of SiC filler material on three-body abrasive wear due to hard fly ash particles acting as a barrier for the behavior of glass-epoxy composites. 7. Sudarshan Rao K , Y.S Varadarajan and N Rajendra.2011. The movement of dislocations within the matrix and exhibit abrasive wear behaviour of graphite filled carbon fabric greater resistance to indentation, but after a definite reinforcement epoxy composite. proportion due to large proportion of fly ash in matrix 8. Mohan.N, S. Natarajana, S. Kumaresh Babu .2011. effects of silicon porosity increases and as a result hardness decreases. carbide fillers on two-body abrasive wear behavior of glass fabric- epoxy (G-E) composites. Hardness value is maximum for activated carbon powder- 9. Sujesh, Ganeshan .2012. Tensile behavior of bidirectional woven Fly ash filled PMC due to combined properties of Fly ash Glass Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Polymer (GFRP) composites filled and activated carbon powder. The Coefficient of friction as with nano silica. 10. K. Devendra and T. Rangaswamy.2012. Mechanical behaviour of E- obtained from pin-on-wear disc method is lowest for Glass Fiber reinforced Epoxy composite filled with varying activated carbon powder- Fly ash filled composites and concentration of AL2O3, Mg(OH)2 and SiC. highest for virgin PMCs with Fly ash filled composites in 11. R.Satheesh Raja, K.Manisekar, V.Manikanda .2013. Effect of fly ash filler size on mechanical properties of polymer matrix composites. between. Presence of carbon helps to reduce the coefficient 12. Weikang Li, Anthony Dichiara, Junwei Zha, Zhongqing Su, Jinbo Bai of friction. Weight loss due to wear is maximum for Virgin .2014. A study on improvement of mechanical and thermo- PMC and minimum for activated carbon powder- Fly ash mechanical properties of glass fabric/epoxy composites by incorporating CNT–Al2O3 hybrids. filled PMC with Fly ash filled PMC in between. Carbon 13. Md Nadeem M, K Chandrashekaran,Yathisha N , Rudramurthy helps in improving the abrasion resistance. However the .2014. Effects of Carbon and glass fibre reinforcement and other density value of activated carbon powder- Fly ash filled fillers on elevated temperature resistant properties of ER matrix composites. composite(1.38 g/cm3) is more than Fly ash(39.7%) filled 14. Aditi Kaul Shah & Sandeep K. Sodhi .2015. Effect of epoxy composite i.e 1.32 g/cm3 but it is still less than virgin modifiers (Al2O3/SiC/TiO2) on the Tensile Strength of epoxy/glass PMC(1.48 g/cm3). fibre hybrid composites. This is due to the presence of aluminium oxide, calcium 15. Vijay D. Karande, Prof. P.R.Kale .2015. Effect of Fly Ash as Filler on Glass Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composite. oxide and activated carbon in activated carbon-Fly ash 16. Iskender Ozsoy, Askin Demirkol, Abdullah Mimaroglu, Huseyin filled PMC which makes it better reinforcement than others Unal, Zafer Demir.2015. Influence of Micro- and Nano-Filler Content due to combined properties of all constituent particles. The on the Mechanical Properties of Epoxy Composites. 17. Prasad Galande, S. E. Zarekar(2016) Effect of Various Fillers on experimental data shows that the selection of filler material Mechanical Properties of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer when mechanical and tribological properties are considered Composites. as one of the major aspect for the production of polymer 18. Mr.Chavan V.B. , Prof. Gaikwad M.U. A review on development of Glass Fiber/Epoxy Composite Material. matrix composite. 19. T RAM PRABHU, S BASAVARAJAPPA,R B SANTHOSH and S M ASHWINI.2016. Study on tribological and mechanical behaviour REFERENCES of dual-particle (nanoclay and CaSiO3)-reinforced E-glass-reinforced epoxy nano-composites. 1. Xian, Jheng. 2003. A study on the effect of the type and content of filler in epoxy–glass composite system.

Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering 202 & Sciences Publication Pvt. Ltd. International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT) ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-6 Issue-4, April 2017

20. Halil Burak, Kaybal1, Hasan Ulus1, Ahmet Avci .2016. Characterization of Tensile Properties And Toughness Mechanisms on Nano-Al2O3 Epoxy Nano-composites.

Biographies Dr. Ajit Kumar Senapati is working as HOD Professor at Mechanical Engg. Deptt in GIET, Gunupur, Odisha. He received his PhD in 2015 in the area of Mechanical/Production Engineering. He also received his M.Tech in Industrial Engineering from BijuPattnaik University of Technology in 2007. He has published more than 35 research articles in different reputed international journal. He has attended 11 international conferences and 23 national conferences. He has guided 33 M.tech and 41 B.tech Project. His research interests are composite material, Machining, Weldabality, Supper alloy supply chain management, inventory optimization and control, optimization techniques and inventory theory.

Subham Choudhury is a student of Mechanical Engg. dept in Giet, Gunupur, Odisha. He is currently pursuing his final year B. tech degree. His research area of interests are composites material and inventory theories.

Snehansu Sekhar Mishra is a student of Mechanical Engg. dept in Giet, Gunupur, Odisha. He is currently pursuing his final year B. tech degree. His research area of interests are composites material and inventory theories.

Ravi Roushan is a student of Mechanical Engg. dept in Giet, Gunupur, Odisha. He is currently pursuing his final year B. tech degree. His research area of interests are composites material and inventory theories.

Subhashis Nanda is a student of Mechanical Engg. dept in Giet, Gunupur, Odisha. He is currently pursuing his final year B. tech degree. His research area of interests are composites material and inventory theories.

Amit Kumar Mohanta is a student of Mechanical Engg. dept in Giet, Gunupur, Odisha. He is currently pursuing his final year B. tech degree. His research area of interests are composites material and inventory theories.

Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering 203 & Sciences Publication Pvt. Ltd.